François-Ferdinand Decombe (15 April 1789,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

- 18 July 1865,

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...

) was a French ballet dancer and ballet master, under the stage name Albert. Albert débuted aged 14 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, before being taken on by the

Opéra de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

in 1808, having been recommended to them by

Jean-François Coulon Jean-François Coulon (1764, Paris - 1836) was a French ballet dancer and instructor. After a career at the Opéra national de Paris, Opéra de Paris, he founded his school at the start of the 19th century and became one of the most renowned bal ...

and

Auguste Vestris Marie-Jean-Augustin Vestris, known as Auguste Vestris (27 March 1760 – 5 December 1842), was a French dancer. He was born in Paris, the illegitimate son of Gaétan Vestris and Marie Allard (1742–1802). His father was a Florentine dancer who ...

. Ejected by the ballet master

Pierre Gardel Pierre-Gabriel Gardel (4 February 1758, in Nancy, France – 18 October 1840, in Paris) was a French ballet dancer, ballet master, violinist, and composer., 2007. He was the younger brother of Maximilien Gardel, seventeen years his senior. In 1795 ...

, Albert divided his time between Paris and London, where he showed all the measure of his talent. Ousted from the Opéra in 1831 to the benefit of

Jean Coralli Jean Coralli (15 January 1779 – 1 May 1854) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for collaborating with Jules Perrot in creating ''Giselle'' (1841), the quintessential Romantic ballet of the nineteenth century. Early life ...

and

Filippo Taglioni Filippo Taglioni (aka Philippe Taglioni; 5 November 1777 – 11 February 1871) was an Italian dancer and choreographer and personal teacher to his own daughter, Romantic ballerina Marie Taglioni. (He had another child who also danced ballet, ...

, he worked in London,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

. From 1838 to 1840 Albert was ballet master to the Brussels

Théâtre de la Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

, where he made the talents of

Arthur Saint-Léon Arthur Saint-Léon (17 September 1821, in Paris – 2 September 1870) was the '' Maître de Ballet'' of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet ''Coppélia''. Biography He was ...

known to the public. On his return to Paris in 1841 he composed the divertissements for the opera ''

La Favorite ''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le comt ...

'' by

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

and for other pieces by that composer. He was also the author of a dance manual, ''L'art de la danse à la ville et à la cour'' (Paris, 1834). In 1811 Albert married the soprano Augustine Himm, after which she performed as

Augustine Albert Augustine Albert, also known as Augustine Albert-Himm (28 August 1791 – after 1846) was a French opera singer who sang leading soprano roles at the Paris Opéra from 1806 to 1823. Amongst the many roles she created in their world premieres was ...

Selected works

* ''Flore et Zéphire'' (Paris, 1815) - ''Zephyr'', choreographer

Charles Didelot Charles-Louis Didelot (28 March 1767, Stockholm - 7 November 1837, Kiev) was a French dancer, the creator of the ballet shoes and a choreographer. The son of Charles Didelot, the dance-master of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his fath ...

* ''Le Séducteur du village'' (Paris, 1818) * ''Cendrillon'' (Paris, 1823) * ''Daphnis et Céphise'' (Vienna, 1830) * '' Le Corsaire'' (London, 1837 and Brussels, 1839) * ''Une journée de Naples'' (Brussels, 1839) * ''Arsène, ou la Baguette magique'' (Brussels, 1839) * ''Kenilworth Castle'' (Brussels, 1840) * ''La Jolie fille de Gand'' (Paris, 1842)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert 1789 births 1865 deaths Paris Opera Ballet étoiles Dance writers French ballet masters 19th-century French ballet dancers French male ballet dancers French art collectors